"The King" says the only way Danica Patrick could win a race is "if everybody else stayed home." He made his comments during a Sunday appearance at the Canadian Motorsports Expo in Toronto.

"If she'd have been a male, nobody would ever know if she'd showed up at a race track," said the seven-time Daytona 500 champion. "This is a female deal that's driving her. There's nothing wrong with that, because that's good PR for me. More fans come out, people are more interested in it. She has helped to draw attention to the sport, which helps everybody in the sport."

Patrick, who drives for Stewart-Haas Racing, has been a media sensation since before arriving at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2005, where she became the first female to lead the Indy 500. A fourth-place finish earned her the cover of Sports Illustrated.

While she won one IndyCar race before making the jump to NASCAR, Petty won 200 in his Hall of Fame career. He says Patrick epitomizes today's NASCAR, where the sport is more about marketing than racing.

"When NASCAR Cup racing first started, it was racing," Petty said. "Over a period of years, with our sponsorships, what we had to do for TV, to get the fans to come, the first thing you know is that the race is secondary, because all the rest of it is buildup, buildup, buildup.

"It's sort of like, say, watching the Super Bowl; it was a lot more exciting watching the buildup than the game. The game just happened to break out in the middle of a good party. We're not quite that far along but in order for us to do what we need to do on race day, the sponsorship and the fan stuff, we have to do all this other stuff."

Patrick became the first woman to ever win a Sprint Cup Series pole when she qualified first for the Daytona 500 last year. She finished eighth, her only top-10 run in 20 Sprint Cup races.

Player representative Joe Barkett told "NFL AM" Monday morning that several teams had become aware of Sam's situation. He went public Sunday in three interviews. The NFL has not had a player admit he is gay while still playing.

"I think the timing of Mike's announcement was really based off of the reactions that we've received the last few weeks from not only front-office personnel, but journalists, as well," Barkett said. "When we were in Mobile for the Senior Bowl, Michael was being approached by people left and right by people trying to break his story, and it was something Mike wanted to do after the draft originally.

"Then we kind of regrouped and discussed if Mike would still be able to do it on his terms at that point in time. And Mike and the rest of us felt that now this time was a little more appropriate where he could take control of the situation instead of being forced to tell his story after somebody else had broken it."

Sam, SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year who is an excellent pass rusher, has been projected by draft pundits as going anywhere from the third to seventh rounds.

"I personally do not (believe his status will be damaged), no," Barkett said. "I think that it could be seen as positive with teams that he came out and was open about his sexuality and forward and honest with everyone, instead of coming out after the draft and potentially having a team claim that he was dishonest with his dealings."

Goodell upset the lawmakers before the Super Bowl XLVIII when the league boss said the nickname has been around for eight decades and honors Native Americans. ESPN columnist Rick Reilly cited in September an Annenberg Public Policy Center poll which reported 90 percent of Native Americans weren't offended by the Redskins nickname.

But Cantwell and Cole, who sit on Native American committees, wrote in the letter, ""The NFL can no longer ignore this and perpetuate the use of this name as anything but what it is: a racial slur."

Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has repeatedly said he will not change the name.